3 ms·
Immediate step is a cell which is long and has a natural ion gradient. E.g. one with flagella on just one side. Then the better ones would evolve machinery to s
by AstralStorm 6y ago
Immediate step is a cell which is long and has a natural ion gradient. E.g. one with flagella on just one side. Then the better ones would evolve machinery to speed up the gradient, which happened to be using some energy but made said cell move and digest faster, thus also reproduce faster. At this point this could still be shut down during lack of food or activity, as there was a natural gradient when activity was nearby.
The membrane is the later invention, dating to organelles which are suspected to be microcellular parasites that got integrated and then reduced.
These membranes were much more efficient, however they were very hard to turn off for hibernation as the membrane is a static gradient and hard to disrupt temporarily.
- im3w1l 6y agoSo if you have a long cell with an ion-gradient along it, I guess you have to have the turbines attached to something right? Or else the protons will just push it around rather than spin it? And then there is still the issue of protons just flowing around the turbine rather than through it. It may be possible, but to my layman intuition it sounds way harder to get right than a membrane. I wonder if maybe an intermediate step could be just channels and turbine. But no pump. If the amount of protons surrounding membrane varies over time, the cell can open the channels when there are many protons outside, and close the channels when there are few (forcing equalization through turbines). Or maybe it can use acid protolysis to create protons?
- jcims 6y agoThis makes a lot of sense, thanks!